16. Subway Branches

There were more people on the train than Isaac had expected. In the corner of the car, what looked like a group of forest fey stood gathered together in a circle doing something Isaac couldn’t see. A demon sat a few feet away staring listlessly out the window, and a small orange line fire wisp was flitting about. It seemed to be trying to find a way to light the fey on fire without them noticing. Isaac didn’t pay them too much attention, trusting the system to prevent any fire damage that would actually be worthy of concern.

He glanced over at Mortimer, who had remained silent since they’d first entered the station. That in itself wasn’t much of a concern; Mortimer had a tendency to go for hours without speaking, but it felt a little different this time. He frowned.

“Was that a faux pas or something?”

Mortimer turned to face him, an eyebrow slightly raised. Isaac elaborated. “I meant was I not supposed to suggest Lucius, like is there some kind of cultural thing where you’re not supposed to talk about people above level 90 without a title or something like that.”

“Oh. No, there’s nothing like that. I was just a bit surprised.”

“Hm.” Isaac leaned back in his chair, absentmindedly watching as one of the fey spun around and yelled at the fire elemental, who darted away while laughing in a voice that sounded exactly like crackling fire. “Do you know Lucius? Have you met him?” He didn’t think about it much, but his job did put him in a rather unique position that allowed him to meet literally everyone (except the other Paradise angels, who seemed quite content to isolate themselves; maybe they all adventured vicariously through Casimir or something) in the Underside.

“I haven’t spoken to him before, no. I’ve only heard stories.”

That made sense. Isaac turned to face his direction, curious. “What kinds of stories?”

Mortimer frowned. “I don’t think you’d like them very much. They’re rather violent.”

Isaac raised an eyebrow. “Really? I can’t imagine Lucius being violent.”

The other man just hummed in response. “There’s many stories of him and that angel, Casimir. Their fights used to be rather catastrophic; they caused a lot of destruction.”

Well, Isaac supposed that was a point in favor of the stat system’s existence. Lilith was crazy, but there was some logic to her choices (Most of them, at least. He didn’t think there was any logic in adding a charisma stat).

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“Things are different now,” Mortimer said.

“Yeah, less property damage to worry about.”

“It’s not just that.” A moment of silence passed, but he didn’t elaborate. Isaac just shook his head and sighed, knowing better than to follow up after Mortimer had already retreated back to his half-present daze of not-giving-a-fuckery. Well, the actual conversation was nice while it lasted, he supposed.

Isaac shifted, attempting to settle into a more comfortable position on the cold plastic seats. No sooner had he leaned his head back did he immediately jerk to the side as what appeared to be a very sharp wooden branch shot right through where his head had been a second ago. He caught a flash of red whizzing past in his peripheral vision, cackling, and realized the wisp must have been using him as a meat shield while he was distracted. His shoulders relaxed with the revelation, and he sighed in exasperation.

The branch retracted just as quickly as it had appeared, retreating back into the extended arm of one of the fey, who smiled sheepishly. The fey’s skin looked like it was made of bark, rough and varied in color and texture, and their hair was a mix of branches and dark green leaves that formed a crown around the top of their head. “Sorry about that! I didn’t notice your presence!” they said.

One of the other fey, who had short hair that stood up like a field of grasses, nudged the one who’d spoken. “Psst, that’s the Traveler!”

The first fey’s eyes widened. “Oh shit. Listen I really didn’t mean, can you tell Lilith—“

“It’s fine, just be more careful next time,” Isaac interrupted. The fire wisp took the opportunity to reappear, almost catching the fey’s hair branches on fire as it zipped past to avoid the very pissed off fey who immediately began chasing after it. Isaac heard the door connecting the subway cars slide open and shut as the group exited, leaving just him, Mortimer, and the demon who hadn’t stopped staring out the window at the tunnel walls the whole time. Isaac could respect the commitment.

Behind him, a gaping hole was now punched through the glass where the branch had pierced it. Cracks were beginning to spread from the origin point, climbing across the window like a spider web. Isaac got up and stepped over to sit on the other, not destroyed side of the train car. Mortimer followed.

“That was amusing,” the half undead man commented as he sat down again. Isaac rolled his eyes.

“It wouldn’t be if those branches actually hit.”

Mortimer smiled ever so slightly. “Well, that might be amusing in a different way.”

He snorted. “Thanks for not stepping in by the way, Mr. Lvl 25.”

“Oh, I thought Lilith had a shield around you.”

“She’s supposed to.” Isaac tapped the screen of the tablet absentmindedly. His fingers had remained firmly gripped around it when he’d dodged the branches, more out of a force of habit than a deliberate decision at this point. “I’ve never actually seen it work, though.”

“Perhaps it calculates whether or not you’ll be able to dodge and only responds if it determines you’re unable to.”

That sounded exactly like something Lilith would do. “Not sure how I feel about her putting that much faith in my reflexes.” Never mind that the only reason said reflexes were half decent at all was because of the amount of similar incidents he’d encountered in the Underside.

Mortimer just hummed in response, and the two fell into a comfortable silence as the train continued bumping along the rails on its journey towards the Inferno.